Thursday, 7 June 2012

Almost Triple Pasta!

It was almost triple pasta because after yesterday's mince pasta and Dad's Spag Bol last night it was Spaghetti Bolognese for lunch today! If Dad hadn't cooked it last night I would have had it but instead I went for chicken fajita. I'd really like to know where the chicken comes from so I am going to write to the lady in charge to ask. I know it comes from a hen but I'd like to know where the hen lived.

There is always spag bol the day after mince pasta which I think are the same meal really. The fajita was lovely because there was no fat on the chicken and it was covered in salsa. I cut it up rather than pick it up in case I dropped bits which isn't popular. It is quite hard to eat peas and sweetcorn without dropping them but I was very careful. The dessert is called Australian Crunch but I don't know why. The only reason I can think of is it has coconut in it unless its a traditional Australian recipe. I didn't finish my dessert so no fruit. Our special visitor in the white coat and hair net wasn't here today. I don't know if we'll see her tomorrow.

Food-o-meter- 4/10
Mouthfuls- 33
Courses- main/dessert
Health Rating- 5/10
Price- £2
Pieces of hair- 0
Wristband- OrangeMary's Meal Total-161 children fed for a year or 21% of a kitchen. I will write to say thanks to you all at the weekend.

Her lunch was 'falafel, which is ground down chickpeas and fava beans, with pita chips and yoghurt and cucumber sauce, with green leaves and onion. It was a really good food and I always enjoy it. We also get dessert (I could not take a picture as you only get it if you have finished all your first course) which we are able to take with us. This day I had a kichlach which is a type of cookie. Through the day we also have 2 snacks, for which we are allowed to get as much fruit or salad as we like, I normally have סָלָט יְרָקוֹת יִשְׂרְאֵלִ (Israeli vegetable salad) which is small cucumber and tomatoes. Or fruit. We pay for school lunch with school tuition but i believe it translates or 12 shekel per day which is almost 2 pounds.
Shalom! (That means Peace, but also Hello or Goodbye)'

I love Ziva's colourful plate. Every other plate I have seen is white. The pretty plate and place mat make the food look so much nicer and I bet it tastes great. I like colour!

73 comments:

Okay Veg, I am continually impressed with you. I think it's great that you want to know where your chicken came from. I hope they answer your question. It bothers me greatly that you don't automatically get fruit with your lunch. It is much more nutritious than your dessert. Keep fighting the good fight.

I completely agree over here. I'm about VEG's age even though I don't know how old she is but I presume she's about 12 or 13, and I don't have school dinners (I used to) but this is a great investment of your time and I enjoy looking at my Blogger Dashboard and see your recent post come up!Good job!

The special visitor is an observer who monitors food waste. If a particular food item is consistently getting binned uneaten, that means something is wrong. Either the food is unpalatable, or very unpopular, or doesn't taste as it's expected to. With a school lunch planned for good nutrition, ideally every item on every plate would be eaten, meaning that every child got all the nutrition intended. Since that's never the case (children can be picky eaters), finding out what they WON'T eat - and substituting something they will eat - is helpful.

I chuckled when I saw the peas and sweetcorn - it's close to what are called 'mixed vegetables' in America. Mixed vegetables include peas, sweetcorn, carrots cut in tiny cubes, and green beans, and sometimes lima beans. Every American child knows mixed vegetables, but I don't think you could say they love them.

Veg: When I described American mixed vegetables, I forgot that what we call 'green beans' here are called French beans in the U.K. Our 'lima beans' are what you call butter beans.

So, mixed vegetables would be sweetcorn, carrots cut in small cubes, peas, French beans and butter beans. About equal portions of each. They're cooked till tender, then dressed with a bit of melted butter.

Dave and Whitney, I thought succotash was Lima beans and corn only, so I looked it up and it turns out that it can have other stuff in it too like tomato and peppers, and sometimes it's quite fancy, with a pastry crust. Anyway, it's good that we're all eating our veggies!

Yeah, I'm surprised by how little they're given. (Granted, I just found this blog, and obviously this is from months ago, so perhaps this has changed.) I'm also surprised that you have to finish desert to get fruit. I'm surprised you have to finish *anything* to get fruit. Fruit was a given when I was growing up (in Los Angeles, CA, USA).

In Australia it's called Chocolate Crunch. Maybe they wanted it to sound healthier by calling it "Australian Crunch"? :-)It's a very easy melt and mix recipe that any child could make.Love your blog. Hugz,

I too am curios about the fruit limit/rules. I'm guessing it must be expensive or hard to get where you live. I live in California where some fruit grows practically like weeds, and school kids are always encouraged to eat fruit...and vegetables. More so than anything else.

Anyway, I am really liking your blog. It's not only fun and interesting, I think it is very important, too. You are doing a lot to raise nutrition awareness, and I think that is fabulous!

You didn't finish your DESSERT, so you can't have FRUIT?? What is wrong with the world?!?! Argh!!!

I, too, commend you on your curiosity about the chicken's origins. I truly believe that people would not put up with the way their food is raised and prepared if they just took the time to be AWARE of how their food is raised and prepared. This simple question: "I'd really like to know where the chicken comes from; I think I'm going to try to find out" is all it takes!

As always, you inspire so much admiration in me, it is hard to put into words. Keep up the great work - but only as long as it interests you!!! When your interests change, change what you do!!! Follow your heart, in other words, as you have here :o)

When I was at school (primary school in Surrey) at about aged 10, we went to see a farm on a school trip. After seeing where our chicken and beef came from, and how they were...ummm... "prepared" to be food, at least ten kids in the class decided that day to be vegetarian. And today, while I'm not vegetarian, I insist on knowing that my meat (when I eat it!) and eggs come from a friendly local farm, where the animals are treated with kindness!

I absolutely love your blog, and I read it every day from North Carolina. Ziva's lunch looked delicious too!

Hi, I hope you don't mind, but in my post today, where I take a rose tinted view of school dinners at my school when I was little - I have linked to your blog. x Hope you pop by and have a read of what it USED to be like!

WHat we have here is high carbohydrate, low protein & probably very low fat meal. Not one vegetable on this plate unless it is inside the fajita. What a lovely meal they are feeding these kids. They should all be type 2 diabetics by the time they graduate eating all these carbs.

Dropping a quick comment here, because I know your story from the Guardian, from where I was directed to here. And this bit just caught my eye: Falafel is not an israeli dish. Falafel is an Arab dish. In this case, it is Levantine, more specifically Palestinian. If israel says it's their ethnic food, that is because it has stolen it, and the narrative went on cheerfully in the West. Just like it has stolen the land, forged the history, etc. Complicated stuff for a rather light blog, but thought I'd clarify this. Read up on it.

There is nothing idiotic in mentioning all the things the very nationalistic Israel have stolen from the Palestinians, however, Ziva never said that Falafel was an Israeli dish, but only that is what she had to eat.

Dropping a quick comment here, because I know your story from the Guardian, from where I was directed to here. And this bit just caught my eye: Falafel is not an israeli dish. Falafel is an Arab dish. In this case, it is Levantine, more specifically Palestinian. If israel says it's their ethnic food, that is because it has stolen it, and the narrative went on cheerfully in the West. Just like it has stolen the land, forged the history, etc. Complicated stuff for a rather light blog, but thought I'd clarify this. Read up on it.

Btw...Salaam means 'Peace' in Arabic...It is also how we say hello and good bye :)

My daughter is only 4 years old so she doesn't eat at the cafeteria in her school yet - that's for the bigger kids like you - for her we give her a packed lunch to take with her every morning...that said - will ask one of the bigger kids to send you a picture of their lunch...the school she goes to was started by Queen Rania of Jordan and one of the things she insisted on was that all the kids have really healthy meals...and the cafeteria is really colorful as well so makes lunch a lot of fun :)

Read up on it ?!Nowhere in Veg's entry or Ziva's description do they describe Falafel as an Israeli dish. Its a Middle Eastern food (not 'specifically Palestinian') and Israel is in the Middle East. Shame on Sham for bringing politics in to this. Falafel wasn't even originally an Arab dish, its Coptic (Christian) Egyptian in origin and probably predates the Muslim conquest of Egypt, but it spread all over the region and then conquered the world.

Agreed - you should ALWAYS be allowed fruit whether you have eaten the rest or not! Fruit is healthy, and I don't think you can ever have too much of it. Not every child has the same nutritional needs, so they shouldn't force you to finish your serving, and if you prefer fruit to their dessert that should be commended not punished!

Why on earth would nutritious FRUIT be withheld from a child who didn't finish a CHOCOLATE DESSERT??? I fail to see the logic! In our house, the chocolate cake is the reward for eating the fruit, not the other way around!

Take your camera to school and take a picture. What can happen? If the council are dishing that stuff out to children up what right do they have to dictate that it is somehow secret?

Allow this to get as big and ridiculous as the council want to make it. Notice you had 250 million comments on that post where you told us about the council and their media blackout on you and just a few on the posts since: Drawn/forgotten camera etc

BTW publish an email address or URL of your council, so us that care can tell them what we think

Well done, Martha. What a great way to be in touch with all of the world, and to bring the plight of the children in Africa, to our attention.I used to be a teacher in charge of school dinners and everyone liked to eat them quickly to go out and play. Sometimes, table manners became very bad (talking with mouths full, elbows on table)what do you think about school meals as a social occasion?

Hey there VEG!I so enjoyed reading your Blog.Here in Australia children take a prepared lunch to school with them each day. So no hot food or food that would need a constant temperature. Mostly sandwiches, dried fruit, nuts, crisps and fresh whole fruit.Keep up the good work and Good Luck for your future endeavors.Kim

It's so cool that you've got people all over the world talking about food and what we serve in school, Martha! My son is your age, and his lunches are so unhealthy! Pizza and burgers. Maybe when his school starts again, he can send you photos of his lunches (dinners).

Thanks for explaining about the Australian Crunch cake, I remember having it at school and I've been trying to find out what it was called for ages. Also have to say I'm very impressed with your blog and think you're very intelligent and knowledgeable about food for someone your age. More children should take your attitude. :-)

You are a star! Congratulations on raising the amount of money you have. Thank you for your priceless style of writing. I have spent a working life as a teacher and would uphold your blog as exactly the sort of thing young people should be involved in. Don't let bossy adults grind you down.

Martha you are an inspiration! I have read through your blog and it is very well written as well as being an eye opener into what our children are being served as nutricious meals in the UK today. keep up the good work and lets hope your fund raising benefits mass amounts of other children. Well done!

Best wishes Martha but..... is this REALLY written by you? I wonder. Do you have any help from other members of your family???Anyway, I support your cause so I shall donate. Despite my, possibly unfounded, suspicions.

Just been introduced to your Blog and I am enjoying it.Congrats on a fantastic fund raising effort for Mary's Meals and the Malawi bairns.You are a credit to your parents,your school and to Scotland.Well done lass!

Hello from Louisiana, USA! I read about your blog on the Internet and am glad you'll still be able to take photographs of your lunches. I don't know why the authorities got so uptight . . . your comments are mainly very positive about your school food.

Here in Louisiana we were sometimes fortunate to have some of our local famous cuisine served at school -- for example, gumbo or red beans and rice. Mmmm!

Hi Veg, I agree with the other Australians, I'm from Melbourne and have never heard of Australian Crunch - here we have something called Hedgehog which looks like it, but the funny thing is we don't have hedgehogs in Australia!!Keep up the good workSharon